Harry Potter and the Distant Relative
by SnakeEyesHannah
Summary: Yet again Harry is back at the Dursleys for the summer. Though this summer is HIGHLY different. *OotP spoilers*
1. The Visitor

The Distant Relative  
  
Yet again, Harry Potter was back at number 4 Privet Drive for the summer holidays. Although he didn't suffer as much from loneliness has he had done last year, he had a hole in his heart where, until the end of his fifth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, Sirius had been.  
  
Harry's Godfather had died to save Harry from Lord Voldemort. Though Harry had accepted the fact that Sirius was dead and that he wasn't coming back, Harry felt extremely sad and lonely when the thought of Sirius entered Harry's mind.  
  
Remus Lupin, a close friend of Sirius' and Harry's dead parents and Harry's ex-teacher, had come several times to visit Harry, to see if he was alright and that the Muggles (non magical people who in this case is Harry's aunt, uncle and cousin) where treating him well.  
  
Different from last year Harry had also contact with his two best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and that he was up-to-date with all that was going on in the Wizard world through the newspaper the Daily Prophet.  
  
Harry had just finished a letter to Hermione when the doorbell rang downstairs. Knowing that uncle Vernon would be angry if it was Lupin, Harry hurried downstairs to open the door. But it wasn't Lupin, it was a girl.  
  
"Hi!" said the girl with a singing voice.  
  
"Hi." said Harry chocked. He stared at the girl who had reached out and grabbed hold of Harry's hand, shaking it madly.  
  
"I'm Aerie Tooper", said the girl still shaking Harry's hand. "You must be Harry Potter, are you not?"  
  
"Yes, I'm Harry", said Harry and nodded. Then he came to his senses and asked: "How do you know my name?"  
  
"Oh, everybody knows your name", said Aerie Tooper and smiled a bright smile that showed off her perfect teeth. "Anyhow, is your uncle or aunt home?" continued Aerie.  
  
Harry nodded again and opened the door further and Aerie stepped inside, dragging a large suitcase and a backpack.  
  
"Aunt Petunia? Uncle Vernon?" called Harry through the kitchen door not taking his eyes off Aerie who was looking eagerly at the pictures on the walls.  
  
"What is it, boy?" yelled Vernon Dursley entering the hall. He then saw the guest and stared frightened at Aerie. "Petunia, darling, can you come out here a minute?" screamed uncle Vernon in a very high pitch voice.  
  
Aunt Petunia stepped out in the hall wiping her hand on the apron. "What is. Aaah!" Aunt Petunia had screamed when she had spotted Aerie. Her eyes where turned from Aerie to Harry and back to Aerie again. She had spotted the similarity.  
  
And with her black, shoulder long, messy hair, green eyes and thin lips, Aerie sure looked like the female version of Harry.  
  
"Who. Who are you?" asked uncle Vernon with a scared tone in his voice.  
  
"I'm your cousins, cousins, grandmothers nice", said Aerie like it was the most natural thing in the world.  
  
Harry gasped, so he did have other relatives alive besides the Dursleys after all.  
  
"Who's cousins grandmothers cousin where you?" asked uncle Vernon and frowned.  
  
"Your cousins, cousins grandmothers nice", said Aerie with a smile. "My Mum and Dad died a few moths ago and my grandmother didn't seem too eager to take me in since I almost burned her house down when I was a kid. So she sent me to you lot."  
  
Harry had a hard time believing that Aeries grandmother even knew the Dursleys existed. And by the looks of it, uncle Vernon didn't either seem too eager to believe her very much. But since Aerie seemed to be Harry's age and that she was the only one that hadn't recoiled when she saw him, Harry smiled and shook her hand again.  
  
"So, where are you from?" he asked.  
  
"Northern Scotland", answered Aerie and laughed a bit when she saw misbelieve in Harry's face. "I know it doesn't sound like it, but Mum and Dad where both from London."  
  
Harry laughed and looked at Aerie with a sort of respect in his eyes. They where going to get along fairy well if uncle Vernon didn't slam the door in her face.  
  
"So, what school will you be attending?" said Harry and smiled a bit since he realized he sounded like a grandparent.  
  
"I don't know", said Aerie and she sounded a bit worried, but as quickly her face became bright again and she smiled. "But I'll sort it out somehow!"  
  
The Dursleys didn't say a word for about five minutes and an awkward silence filled the hall. But then uncle Vernon draw a deep breath and smiled a fake smile.  
  
"Well, as much as we would love you to stay, we seem to be a bed short!" He looked very pleased to have come up with such an excellent excuse.  
  
"Oh, that's OK, I'll sleep in the cupboard under the stairs so she can have my room!" said Harry quickly.  
  
"No! I'd hate to cause any trouble", said Aerie and laid a hand on Harry's arm. "I'll just check in at a motel!"  
  
"Don't be silly", said aunt Petunia suddenly. "I'll see what I can dig up in the attic, so you can sleep on the floor in Harry's room. What do you say?"  
  
Uncle Vernon looked like he'd explode any minute, aunt Petunia smiled motherly at Aerie and Aerie. Well, she looked like she'd jump up and down with joy and she beamed up at aunt Petunia.  
  
Harry was chocked, since when did aunt Petunia insist on having a stranger sleep over?  
  
"Harry, could you help Aerie carry her stuff up to your room?" interrupted aunt Petunias voice. Harry nodded and grabbed Aeries suitcase and showed the way upstairs.  
  
"Wow, what a cool room!" exclaimed Aerie when she stepped inside Harry's room.  
  
"Dudley's old actually", said Harry shyly.  
  
"Dudley is your cousin, right?" said Aerie and looked around.  
  
Harry nodded and wondered how she could know so much about Harry and the Dursleys. He then remembered that his magic-books and all of his Hogwarts-clothes laid allover the floor. He was just about to ask her to go downstairs to wait so he could clean up a bit when Aerie took up one of his books (Quiddich throughout times).  
  
"Do you play?" she asked and pointed at the book.  
  
Harry's jaw fell open and he stared at Aerie who calmly looked trough the book. How could she know about Quiddich?  
  
"Um.. Um.." was all Harry could get out.  
  
"Wait a minute!" said Aerie and looked straight at Harry's broom. "Of course you play, why else would you have a broom?"  
  
She looked happily at Harry who was staring dumb at her. "Isn't it the most wonderful sport ever?" sighed Aerie and smiled satisfied.  
  
Harry couldn't speak for a minute and when he did he had a bit of a mistrusting tone in his voice.  
  
"How can you know about Quiddich? And how come you know so much about me and the Dursleys?"  
  
"Oh, didn't I tell you?" said Aerie absent-minded. "Must've slipped my mind. Well, surprise; I'm a witch!" 


	2. Acceptance

Acceptance  
  
"You're what?!" echoed Harry.  
  
"A witch", said Aerie shrugging her shoulders. "You know, what you are except the opposite sex."  
  
"I know what a witch is, I just didn't know you where one!" said Harry a bit irritated.  
  
They didn't speak more about Aerie being a witch, but they talked about almost everything else. And as Aerie was a witch, Harry could talk about Quiddich, how much he missed it, and about Sirius' death.  
  
'She'd understand' thought Harry before revealing his heart to Aerie.  
  
And so the topic came to families and they ended up talking a whole lot about Aeries parents and her family. Harry found out that Aerie was a year younger than he would be in a week.  
  
As aunt Petunia called then down for dinner an hour later, Harry wondered if he should warn Dudley that they had a guest. But the more Harry thought about it, the more attractive the thought about Dudley being humiliated became, and he couldn't resist smiling cruelly to himself.  
  
"Mum, why's there five chairs at the table?" Harry heard Dudley ask aunt Petunia. He placed a finger over his lips to say to Aerie to be quiet.  
  
"Oh, we have a guest, Dudleyboy", hummed aunt Petunia and Harry could hear Aerie choke a giggle at the nickname.  
  
"Who is it?" demanded Dudley.  
  
"You'll see her soon, sweetums", said aunt Petunia still humming.  
  
Dudley fell silent and Harry could almost swear that Dudley was thinking of a way of impressing Aerie. Harry smiled content and waved to Aerie to follow him.  
  
". and this is the kitchen", said Harry as if he had showed Aerie around the house. Aerie was quick to play along.  
  
"You have a wonderful home, Mrs. Dursley", flattered Aerie and smiled beautifully. And to Harry's joy, Dudley stared at Aerie with his jaw halfway to the floor.  
  
"Why thank you!" said aunt Petunia and blushed a little. "And you can call me aunt Petunia."  
  
Aerie smiled her sweetest smile and turned to Dudley with a glimpse of cruel joyfulness in her eyes.  
  
"Hello cousin", she said and held out a slim hand towards Dudley. "I'm Aerie Tooper."  
  
Dudley was not able to pull himself together enough to close his mouth until aunt Petunia poked her son with a bony elbow.  
  
"I'm. I'm. I'm Dudley", said Dudley with an unnatural dark voice.  
  
"Well, have you both washed your hands?" asked aunt Petunia Harry and Aerie. They both nodded and aunt Petunia announced that the chicken was ready. Uncle Vernon walked through the door as aunt Petunia placed the salad and the chicken on the table.  
  
The dinner past pretty quick under a strict conversation about uncle Vernon's drill company.  
  
Harry found that he enjoyed Aeries company more and more for every day and swoosh, four days had gone by. Harry made a mental note to himself that he should write to someone in the Order so they didn't worry about him, but every time Harry sat down to write, Aerie interrupted with one brilliant idea after another.  
  
"Can't we play Quiddich?" asked Aerie bored as Harry sat down at his desk, ready to write a letter to Lupin.  
  
"No, we can't", said Harry. "For one thing, you don't have a broom."  
  
"Yes I do!" interrupted Aerie and shrugged. "I just haven't shown it to you yet."  
  
"Well", said Harry, a bit irritated for being interrupted. "There's another problem. We can't fly here, what if the Muggles see us?"  
  
"Oh, you're one of those", said Aerie with a sigh.  
  
"One of those?" asked Harry angry. "What does that mean?"  
  
But it meant was never sorted out as Hedwig crashed against Harry's closed bedroom window. Harry hurried to open the window so Hedwig could fly in. She had a letter tied to her leg.  
  
"I'm sorry, Hedwig. I wasn't expecting you", said Harry regretfully. Harry's snow-white owl gave him a hurt look but bit him playfully and they were OK again. Harry quickly released Hedwig from the letter and opened it. But before Harry had the chance to read it, a brown barn owl flew in through the open window. The barn owl held out its leg and Harry took the two letters it had been carrying. The owl flew quickly out again and Harry grinned at Aerie.  
  
"There's a letter for you too!"  
  
"Really?" said Aerie and looked very much like a child on Christmas Eve.  
  
A silence fell between them as they read the letters. A minute later, Aerie let out a small scream of happiness and threw herself in Harry's arms.  
  
"I'm going to Hogwarts!"  
  
Harry ginned. Ha had known since there was a Hogwarts letter to Aerie. And none other than Dumbledore could know where she was!  
  
"Congratulations!"  
  
Aerie beamed at Harry and looked over the list of things she would need.  
  
"Wow, you're going to need a lot of stuff!" said Aerie and brightened. "And there's only one place where you can get them!"  
  
"Diagon Alley!" smiled Harry. "You know about it?"  
  
"Of course I do!" smiled Aerie. "Now read that letter you got from your owl!"  
  
Harry unfolded the letter and saw Hermione's neat handwriting.  
  
Dear Harry!  
  
Well, it's nice to hear that you're all right and that your aunt and uncle are treating you well. And hopefully you're not thinking too much about Sirius. I'm sorry if you got upset about me writing about him!  
I got the letter from Hogwarts today, and I thought that we (you, me and the Weasleys) could get together sometime soon to get all of our stuff! I've already owled Ron and asked him when it's a good time.  
Hope to hear from you soon.  
  
Love  
Hermione  
  
"Who's Hermione?" asked Aerie who had leant over Harry's shoulder to take a peek at the letter.  
  
"Remember I told you about my best friends?"  
  
"Oh yeah! That's her!" smiled Aerie and smacked a hand on her forehead. "You know, me and my memory!"  
  
They got a bit of a chuckle at that, and then Harry quickly scribbled down an answer to Hermione.  
  
Hi Hermione!  
  
That'll be great! Looking forward to seeing you lot again!  
I actually didn't get sad to see Sirius' name, but please try not to write about him so much.  
Write back and tell me what Ron said, will you? Oh, and by the way, do you think it's OK if I bring someone along?  
Treat Hedwig with something nice, would you, dear.  
  
Harry  
  
"Hey, why don't you write my name too?" smiled Aerie. "So she'll have something to wonder about."  
  
"That's a really good plan", grinned Harry and quickly added "and Aerie" to the letter and tied it to Hedwig's leg.  
  
"Find Hermione, would you?" said Harry friendly to his half sleeping owl. Hedwig opened her eyes and gave him a look that said: "Don't I always" and with a last hoot she had flied off again. 


End file.
